FAQ's
What is the Ontario Green Energy Act
Ontario Bill 150, Green Energy and Green Economy Act, 2009
Bill 150 was tabled at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario on February 23, 2009 and passed into law on May 14, 2009.
About Green Energy – Green energy is an environmentally friendly, sustainable source of electricity and has several key components.
The first is renewable energy – electricity that is generated using easily available, naturally occurring fuel sources such as water, energy from the sun, wind energy and energy from waste.
The second is conservation – the conscious reduction of electricity consumption by being smarter about how, where and when we use it.
A third aspect of green energy is its ability to effectively generate electricity on a much smaller scale than traditional "big power" stations that use coal and nuclear fuels. This allows generation to be located much closer to where it is consumed.
This form of green energy is called Community Power.
The benefits of green energy include lower greenhouse gas emissions, reduced environmental impacts and an expanding green collar industry that creates sustainable, high value jobs for Ontarians.
In 2006, Premier McGuinty set a precedent in North America by introducing the Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program – the most progressive green energy initiative in more than twenty years. In that same year the Ontario Power Authority began work on the Integrated Power System Plan – a 20 year plan that will determine how Ontario’s electricity system will evolve.
A great start but not enough to get us where we need to go.
We need the Ontario Green Energy Act to propel Ontario into a leadership position in renewable energy, to reduce our pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, to create meaningful jobs for Ontarians and to enhance community economic development for rural, remote and First Nations communities.
Key Benefits:
- Creation of a renewable Energy Facilitation Office
- Feed-In Tariff Program
- Planning Act Exemptions
- Expedited Connections for Renewable Power Projects
- Renewable Energy Cooperatives
- Streamlined Approval Process
- Smart Grid
- Generation by Municipal Electric Utilities
- Conservation and Demand Management Directives